Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to begin by saying that the national economic recovery plan is a scandal. It leaves workers and families behind. It is a betrayal of workers and their families. These people have already been devastated by Government and national public health emergency team lockdowns.

I understand from a recent report that one condition of EU funding is that 37% of the money is spent on green initiatives. Our Government is going far beyond that as usual, with 50% of the Covid-19 recovery facility to be spent on propping up Green Party policy in government. Where is the money for workers, families and communities in Laois and Offaly who are being crippled by an unjust transition? Where has cop on and common sense gone? Clearly, it is not alive and well in government. We are being governed by environmental fanatics who are out of step, out of touch and detached from what most people and small businesses want.

With regard to the local property tax, 100,000 people will now be paying this tax for the first time. The new proposals have been greeted with much frustration by all those who pay the property tax because they are not seeing improved services on the ground. The tax was supposed to provide capital funding for roads and so forth but this has not been forthcoming. We have dreadful roads in Laois-Offaly. The money is clearly not going into our local authority. That needs to change. People feel aggrieved and are rightly very frustrated.

See this speech in context